The stench versus the black hole

Date: May 12 2012

BUDGET week is usually a positive time for a government as it sets out its plans. But this budget week has been dominated overwhelmingly by not one, but two negatives.

For the government the budget ought to have been a positive. Bringing in a surplus - thin though it may be - is a positive achievement at a time when many Western economies are crippled by debt. The cutbacks have mostly been intelligent, and the opposition's move to block a promised cut to business tax has been turned neatly: business tax will stay the same but lower-income households will get handouts. The original plan would have been better but if those on the wrong side of the two-speed economy are feeling the pinch, this politically deft trick might help - although as the poll we publish today suggests, it has not made them feel any more kindly towards Labor. Perhaps more importantly for the government in the very short term, the budget - except for the decision on business tax - has been mostly well received by the business and investment communities.

But good or bad, the budget has been overwhelmed by the consequences of the Fair Work Australia report into the Health Services Union, in particular the activities of the Dobell MP, Craig Thomson, when he was an official of the union. The publication of the report on Monday has produced a reaction, particularly among the other independent MPs on whose vote the government relies, that may jeopardise its future.

The report's forensic dissection of what was done by HSU officials and when is more than a problem for the individuals named in it. It is a problem for Labor and the union movement. The findings undercut the movement's standing at a stroke: it appears those who were supposed to fight for the rights of the low paid were instead squandering their collected funds on the high life. HSU East might be just one branch of one union but Thomson's status as an MP - eased into Parliament by Labor's dominant faction, supporting the government even though it has expelled him from the party - only makes him more of a liability. Though the HSU scandal does not touch the government's senior ranks, it adds to a growing list of Labor failings: the Slipper affair, the chicanery with Andrew Wilkie over poker machines, the Australia Day demonstration against Tony Abbott, the broken carbon tax promise, the dumping of Kevin Rudd … and on and on. Voters lump all of them together and attribute them, fairly or not, to the Gillard government. The HSU affair adds an element of moral failure to the more usual slipperiness. Labor is starting to smell.

Nonetheless, the opposition should pause before it pursues Thomson through Parliament. Bob Katter and Tony Windsor are right to pull back from any opposition move against Thomson. Along with Rob Oakeshott, the two are waiting for Thomson to address the House of Representatives on the Fair Work Australia findings. The House is many things but it is certainly not a court of law. Any decision about Thomson's fitness to serve as an MP should not rest in the hands of so partisan a group.

Thomson is the subject of allegations, based on the findings of an inquiry. Those allegations may - and the word may should be emphasised - become charges. That has yet to be determined. Until it is, Thomson should be accorded the presumption of innocence. For Parliament to start picking off MPs one by one on the basis of allegations against them would set an appalling precedent.

The other negative was the opposition's reply to the budget. Tony Abbott continued the tactic he used last year, offering not a detailed alternative program but a comprehensive rubbishing of the Prime Minister. His one new positive offering - an undertaking to boost language learning in Australian schools - is well worth support. We have argued many times that Australians' ignorance of foreign languages is a dangerous linguistic deficit that will harm our prospects in the future. But Abbott has promised to "work with the states" to improve the numbers of students studying foreign languages. Given the enormous - $50 billion by some estimates - gap between what he has promised and the funds available to him, these look like weasel words, designed to suggest good intentions without a promise to back them up with dollars.

Language teaching aside, this was a disappointing speech from the man many Australians are looking to to rescue them from Labor's growing malaise.

At the end of this budget week, federal politics is overwhelmed by the negative. Voters who are looking desperately for an alternative to Labor are offered only a large black hole. They would be entitled to say to Abbott: Labor with all its problems managed to frame a balanced budget. Why can't you?

Last exit to Waitara

WE CANNOT agree with the Prime Minister's hurtful and unnecessary assertion that the north shore is not part of the real world, that its residents are cosseted and therefore less deserving than other Australians. The region's verdant and manicured loveliness is a model to which surrounding suburbs aspire. Nonetheless, some commentators have been rash enough to observe that nothing much happens there and time can drag. The perception, true or not, may damage the north shore's reputation undeservedly. May we, in the spirit of bipartisanship lacking in our elected representatives, make a modest suggestion. The solution to the north shore's minor (and it is, extremely minor) image problem is a reality TV show. Forget The Shire, this is The Shore. A dozen or so telegenic young hunks and bodacious babes are filmed 24/7 living their normal lives in a 1960s triple-fronted St Ives brick veneer. In each gritty, edgy episode they debate whether to play Xbox, mow the lawn, or walk four kilometres to Pymble shops and just chill. The clash of personalities and ideas - plus the tension of voting out one member each week (losers forced to live in Newtown) would produce, we feel sure, a guaranteed ratings winner.

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